Chapter Thirteen: Lovely Ladies

Hestia had never been to the Falcone household. She had never even pondered what it might be like, but she still found herself surprised as Zsasz led her up the front walkway. He didn't knock, but instead entered into the foray. Her bright eyes took in her surroundings as he led her through the house and out onto a back patio. The main deck was a nice polished stone with intricate guard rails crafted from the same polished stone encompassing it. On each side of the deck were a set of stairs that led down into a garden. A fountain bubbled water off towards the center of the garden, and she waited for Falcone to appear before she even thought of sitting at the expanse glass table before them.

Fish had already taken a seat while Butch was off towards the garden with a group of other men. Zsasz had disappeared from her side, and so she wrapped her fingers with each other in front of her stomach. The table was covered in a delicate china set, with different dishes towards the center of it. They still had lids upon them, and Hestia looked over the seats around the table. There were place cards at each chair, and as she searched for her name, a hand gently touched her shoulder. "Dr. Zaqar, I am glad you could make it. I know you must have had a rough night."

Falcone's voice was gracious and she turned to greet him. "I didn't want to turn down your invitation, thank you for having me. I don't recognize any of these other names, other than Miss Mooney's."

The older gentleman's eyes looked over her outfit. He hadn't realized how long her hair was as it draped towards her lower back. He had only ever seen her with it pulled up. He gently took one of her hands in his own and kissed the top of it. She caught Victor's light scowl as he approached from the house, and she simply nodded at Falcone. "You look wonderful as always. You'll become acquainted with them soon enough. Why don't you go ahead and take your seat?"

Zsasz moved to pull out her chair and she carefully sat down upon the cushioned dark oak chair. She winced slightly as he pushed her up to the table, and he stood behind her, his hands behind his back. Falcone took a seat at the head of the table, with Fish sitting closer to him. She was in the middle of the table, and she felt very out of place. Soon other gentlemen showed up, each of them bringing a guest that would move to stand towards Butch and the other men. She crossed her hands in her lap and gave a smile and small greeting to each of the other men as they sat. She kept her confidence because she knew that this was a whole new incidence all together, and she didn't want Zsasz to be upset by her presentation.

She kept her conversations short with these new comers, and left out any personal details. The group dished out different foods from the dishes in the center of the table, and the mood was light and Hestia soon forgot about the pain that ghosted through her body. Zsasz stayed close to the table, but had moved from Hestia's back. Falcone took a few brief moments to introduce her, and she was given a few sets of thanks for the work she had done to keep much of their workers alive. Fish had placed a hand under her chin as she sipped from a glass of wine. She wondered why this ginger was sitting at the table, and she licked her malicious teeth as the meal continued.

Soon after the meal was finished, many of the guests left, leaving only Falcone, Fish, and Hestia to remain at the table. "Would you ladies care for some tea?"

"I wouldn't mind some." Hestia stated happily as she finished off her glass of water. She was feeling rather light hearted after the meal, and she was itching to know if Zsasz felt she conducted herself well. She was in the presence of his boss, after all.

Falcone called one of the men from Butch's group over, and soon the man was disappearing into the house. After a few moments of discussion a fair haired woman emerged from the home. She pushed a tray in front of her with a tea set adorning it. Hestia's light hearted feeling dropped straight through her as she eyed the woman's face. Falcone caught their exchange as they made eye contact. "Oh, do the two of you know each other?" Fish asked calmly.

Zsasz's eyes fell on the back of doctor's flames as Hestia cleared her throat. "Oh yes. Liza used to be a patient of mine. How are you? Did you end up enjoying that new doctor that I recommended you?"

Her friend blinked away her fear before setting down a cup of tea in front of Hestia. "I actually didn't end up going. I found a different one that was closer to where I moved. Are you still at the same practice?"

Falcone and Fish seemed to buy into their discussion, but Zsasz could hear the change in Hestia's voice. Liza and Hestia finished their short conversation with Liza assuring that she would stop by the clinic to catch up. After that, Liza moved back into the house, leaving her cart behind. Hestia slowly sipped her tea to avoid any questions at the current moment. Her heart pounded against her rib cage as she recalled all of her attempted calls to Liza going straight to voicemail. Liza wasn't a mob kind of girl, at least, Hestia never believed her to be. She was the nicest to her in her group of friends, and they had been through some rough patches together. They were crazy teenagers at one point, and they often got into trouble.

She was so consumed in her thoughts that she hadn't even realized that Falcone was speaking to her until Zsasz cleared his throat loudly. "Oh, yes?" She muttered as she made contact with him. "I was just enjoying the tea and listening to the fountain, my apologies."

"Victor had mentioned you wanting more help at your facilities. I decided that today would be the best day for us to discuss this." Falcone had a patient smile upon his lips as he waited for her to elaborate.

Hestia sat her tea cup down carefully before straightening herself in her seat. She inhaled slowly before returning a smile back towards the older gentleman. Fish's eyes snarled at Hestia as she waited to hear what more this girl could possibly want. "Well, I think that mental health is an important part to a human being healthy as a whole. I didn't specialize in the mental health field like my parents did, but I would like to employ two, maybe three, doctors that could see my patients in a therapy type setting. Of course, I would need to add onto the building for this, but I would really appreciate being able to take care of my patients as a holistic senses, especially since Arkham was shut down."

Falcone had placed his hands down on the table as she spoke while Fish turned her gaze to him to await for his answer. Hestia kept her eye contact with him, her smile still evident on her face as she tried to keep herself from fidgeting. "Your parents owned a practice together, right?"

"Yes, for a number of years." Hestia's smile weakened slightly at the corners of her lips as he spoke.

"So you have a deep understanding of the importance of good mental health."

"Yes, I do."

Hestia was unsure of where this conversation was going as she stared into the older gentleman's face. His features were more wrinkled than she had remembered, but his smile had faded completely. "Do you think they offered you the correct amount of mental health assistance?"

The doctor's eyes grew dark as she forced her smile to remain upon her features. Fish looked between the two, obviously confused. "I think I have a pretty good sense of my mental being, Don Falcone." She moved her hands to adjust the skirting of her dress as she moved closer to the table.

"Then why did you kill them?"

Hestia could feel Victor's gaze upon her back, and she licked her bottom lip. "I thought that we had discussed that, Carmine." She worked to cool her seething anger as she locked eyes with him again. Fish's mouth hung slightly open as she witnessed the sudden change in the otherwise meek doctor's behavior.

"Oh, so you haven't told Victor?" His lips had twisted in a smug sort of grin as he snapped his fingers. "You see, I am having a hard time with loyalty amongst my people lately. I need to be sure I know where you stand."

A man came from the garden with a brown paper sack. He placed it down on the table in front of Falcone, and Hestia eyed it angrily. Falcone slipped on a pair of gloves from his jacket pocket before opening the sack. He removed a small hand gun before setting it in front of the doctor. Hestia felt her stomach turn as she looked down at the cold metallic shine of the gun before her. Victor was now at the table, his eyes examining the doctor's face as her eyes darkened as she examined the weapon. She shot a glare at Fish. "Was this your idea? To prove my loyalty?"

Falcone waved a hand to stop Hestia's questions before looking the red head over again. "No, Miss Mooney has no idea the significance of this gun to you."

"Maroni." Victor suddenly muttered as he picked up the gun. "You work for Maroni?" His voice was calm, but she could see the intent in his features. He was angry and jumping to conclusions.

"I guess I should tell you since I am practically being forced to." She took the gun from Victor's grasp before flipping it over to show him the initials. "I have not, nor will I ever work for that loud mouth. My father used to work for him. My father was a strongman for him. He collected debts for him, or would go give people a good scare for Maroni."

"Why don't you take a seat, Victor? This will be a long story for you." Falcone mused out loud towards the hitman. Victor took this as an order and took the chair closest to her, his body turned slightly to face her.

"After school one day, I happened to come across an incident involving some of Car—Falcone's men. They were in the middle of dealing with a couple of guys for him, and they happened to notice me. I didn't know what to do in the situation, and before I could decide on a course of action, I was being drug into the backseat of a car. I remember thinking that I was dead already and that I was simply being transported onto whatever path it is that we take when we die. Instead, we pulled up to a warehouse. I was brought inside, and that is where I met Don Falcone. He asked me how I did in school and asked me what I planned to do with my life. I informed him that I wanted to be a doctor. He told a couple of guys to take me home."

Victor was confused as to what this had to do with her murdering her parents, but he continued to listen quietly. He would keep his questions until she finished speaking to him. Fish had simply rested a hand upon her palm as the doctor spoke. "After that, I had to make sure I kept up my good grades. My idiot father got in trouble with Maroni and lost every penny we had through gambling, and so I figured my dreams of becoming a doctor were over. I got into a little trouble then… and instead of my parents bailing me out, Falcone was there for me. He bailed me out and got me my own place to concentrate on school. I handled a few smaller things for Falcone, like placing packages wherever I was told to go."

"In return, he allowed me to continue working on my path to become a doctor. He paid for me to go to college, and then to go to medical school. In the meantime, my parents continued to work out a deal with Maroni. They were desperate for money. That was all that ever mattered to them. They racked up thousands of dollars in credit card loans while I was gone. They owed all kinds of loan sharks. By the time I had returned, they made a deal with Maroni. He would take care of all of their loans, and allow my father to continue working for him, if I married his nephew."

Victor's gaze continued to look over her features as they changed with each part of her story. He rested one of his knees against her own, and she continued on. "Well, his nephew was obnoxious. Rude. He didn't want me to practice my medicine since I was going to be his stay at home baby maker," her nose scrunched in disgust as she remembered him, "plus he was a drunk. A really mean drunk. He always made sure to be careful of my face though. I had to be pretty, you know?" Hestia ran her tongue over her teeth.

"So, one day I went to my parents to tell them I wasn't going to go through with it. They didn't want to listen to a word of how Alfio treated me, and they said that I was probably over exaggerating. They didn't visit me in the hospital when he cut up my back because he didn't like an outfit that I had worn out with some of my friends. So, I decided that I would end the misery of their debts and to release me from prison at home…on my father's birthday, we went to eat at his favorite restaurant. I insisted that we did. I took my father's gun from his glove compartment box after I made up some lie about needing my purse. I came back in and we had our last meal together."

Hestia tightened her hands into the skirt of her dress as she remembered the anger inside her that day. "I shot my mother first. I didn't want her to scream if I shot one of the others before her. My father tried to get the gun, so I obviously had to shoot him next." She clicked her tongue behind her teeth. "I shot Alfie next because he tried to pull out his own weapon. Then those stupid waiters showed up, so I had to kill them as well. I couldn't leave any witnesses to speak to the police, or especially to speak to Maroni. Oswald came out, and I thought that maybe he could help me cover it up. He hadn't worked for Miss Mooney long, but I did know of him. His mother used to come to my clinic when it first opened. So, I simply wounded him. I made sure he was still able to leave, and so I wiped off my gun and had him shoot me in the arm."

Fish's eyebrow raised at this side of the doctor. She never took her as a murderer, and she was actually fairly surprised as she recalled her story. "Then I had him leave before the police arrived. He was supposed to dispose of the gun for me since I let him live. Instead, he went straight to Falcone and gave it to him. Of course, the police never expected me, especially since I was wounded myself. They figured that my father had angered Maroni again, and that was that. I went right back to practicing at my clinic again the next day. Which was why I was so surprised that he sent you and Oswald to scare me into a new deal." She shot a glare at Falcone. "Especially since I used 'take care' of a good deal of Maroni's men when they used to come in to see me."

She exhaled sharply before letting go of her dress. "There. Now Victor knows, Don Falcone. I told you that I would eventually tell him, when I felt I was ready to do so."

"You shouldn't be ashamed of what you are, Hestia. Victor has embraced it graciously." The seasoned man assured her as he stood. He stopped to pat her shoulder. "You've been a great addition to this family, and now there are no secrets. Victor, why don't you take her home now?"

Hestia stood sharply and began to head towards the Falcone home. She didn't wait for Victor, but instead pushed through. She made eye contact with Liza as she exited out of the front door and she continued until she got to the car that Victor had brought her in. She felt betrayed by Falcone, and she fought to keep her temper when she found the car door locked. She growled low in her throat before resting her forehead against the car. She didn't want to have to tell him this way, and she had full intentions to tell him when she was ready. He calmly touched her lower back once he caught up to her, his other hand working to unlock her door.

They stood in silence for what seemed an eternity before he leaned forward. The scent of shampoo tickled against him as he lowered his lips to her ear. "Don't be angry. Now we can be completely honest with each other, can't we?" He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her back from the door before opening it for her. She climbed in carefully and he shut it behind her. Their car ride was relatively quiet as they made their way through the lazy traffic back to the heart of the city.

He walked her inside and did a quick search of her living quarters, as well as a search of her practice to assure she was safe before he departed to return back to Falcone. He didn't utter another word as his back disappeared through the door.